WSPA Channel 7 in Greenville, SC and the Florida Times Union are reporting Clemson has accepted a bid to play in the Gator Bowl in Jacksonville.

Clemson just became bowl-eligible this past weekend with a victory over South Carolina, but the Gator Bowl used its third pick out of the ACC to take the Tigers.

The ACC Champion goes to the Orange Bowl, which will be the winner of the Boston College/Virginia Tech game this Saturday. The Chick-fil-A Bowl gets the No. 2 pick and took Georgia Tech.

The Champs Sports Bowl picks after the Gator Bowl and it appears they will take Florida State. The Orlando Sentinel is reporting the Seminoles appear to be headed for Orlando for a matchup against Minnesota or Wisconsin.

With the No. 5 pick the Music City Bowl is preparing for the loser of the ACC title game. The Meineke Car Care Bowl picks next and the Durham Herald Sun is reporting that North Carolina will be invited.

That would leave Miami (Fla.), Maryland, Wake Forest and N.C. State out of the ACC to fill spots in the Emerald Bowl, Humanitarian Bowl, EagleBank Bowl and an at-large bid, possibly the Motor City Bowl.

Since the Emerald Bowl picks next and had Maryland last year, its likely that the Hurricanes will play out west.

If Rutgers beats Louisville on Dec. 4 and Notre Dame loses to USC, the Irish are going to be the most sought after 6-6 team in history.

First, let's assume in all scenarios that Notre Dame loses to USC. And remember Notre Dame falls in the pecking order for Big East bowl placement.

Now if Rutgers beats Louisville that would give the Big East six teams with at least 7 wins and six Big East bowl slots. Which means a 6-win Notre Dame team can not take the place of a 7-win team. So the Big East picture would look like this -- Cincinnati to BCS, West Virginia/Pitt winner to Sun Bowl, West Virginia/Pitt loser to Meineke Car Care Bowl, Connecticut to International, Rutgers to Papajohns.com and South Florida to St. Pete Bowl.

So what happens to the Fighting Irish?

Well, they would have to find a home in a bowl that has an open slot due to conferences not being able to fill.

-- Texas Bowl could have a Big 12 slot. So this might be a home for the Irish. Notre Dame vs. a C-USA team (Rice/Houston/Tulsa) on the NFL Network. Half the country wouldn't even be able to watch Notre Dame. So much for TV ratings.

-- Poinsettia Bowl will have an open slot because it won't be able to fill its Pac-10 slot, but it has a backup deal with the WAC. So scratch that one.

-- Papajohns.com and Independence Bowls will have slots to fill from the SEC, but they have a backup contracts with the Sun Belt. According the Palm Beach Post, both the PapaJohns and Independence must fill it with a 6-6 Sun Belt team unless there is another 7-5 team out there without a bid. So scratch those two. The Independence is going to have a slot on the Big 12 side too, but it looks like they will land Louisiana Tech.

-- Hawaii and Emerald Bowls will have an open slots because it won't be able to fill its Pac-10 slot. So maybe Notre Dame could meet Hawaii in lovely Honolulu. Hey, there are worse places you could be on Dec. 24. Or maybe even San Francisco on Dec. 27 against a team from the ACC -- Clemson? Boston College? Maybe even .... Notre Dame vs. Miami (Fla.).

The biggest problem with the Hawaii, Emerald and Texas Bowls is that a MAC team is going to grab one of these slots. The MAC has three slots and assuming Ball State is in the Motor City and Buffalo is in the International -- either Western Michigan or Central Michigan will be in one of these games with the other in the GMAC Bowl. Both teams have more than 7 wins, so they have to be in a bowl over Notre Dame.

Now all this above becomes moot if Louisville beats Rutgers, because then Notre Dame can take a Big East slot and will most definitely be in El Paso, Tex in the Sun Bowl to play Arizona/Oregon/California or Oregon State.

But if Louisville wins, the Irish will have to scramble, but it looks like the Hawaii, Texas or Emerald Bowls are going to be their best chance to land. Hawaii Bowl pays the least, Emerald Bowl pays the most.

Your guess is as good as mine.

Notes

... It doesn't look like Boise State is going to land in the BCS, so that means either stay home at the Humanitarian Bowl or opt out and find another place to play. If it decides to stay home, the Broncos would be matched up against ACC No. 8, which could be Wake Forest or Maryland. If it decides to find a new home, the Poinsettia Bowl would be the best place for them. The Poinsettia Bowl would need a replacement for a Pac-10 team and would match up the undefeated Broncos vs. either BYU or TCU, whichever team the the Las Vegas doesn't take. This could end up being one of the best non-BCS bowl games of the year with the WAC Champions vs. the second-best Mountain West team. Call in the Non-BCS Bowl.

... Speaking of Clemson. If the Tigers win their last game they will be bowl-eligible at 6-6 and become very attractive in the bowl world. According to The State, Meineke bowl director Will Webb said he can foresee Clemson chosen as early as the Champs Sports Bowl, which gets the third at-large ACC pick. “There are just an awfully lot of people who are going to be interested in Clemson, us included,” Webb said. Remember, ACC No. 3 doesn't mean third-place team out of the ACC, it means that bowl gets the third pick.

It definitely comes from my childhood where I used to set up four TVs in the living room on New Year's Day to watch all the games. Mom wasn't too happy when I took the TV out of her bedroom to watch four games at once.

Mom: "How can you watch four games at one time? You don't even know what's going on."

Me: "Sure I can, Georgia Tech is beating Nebraska in the Fiesta Bowl! If they win, it's going to have to be a split national title!"

Mom: "Just make sure its back in my bedroom tonight so I can watch Rescue 911."

Ahh, Jan. 1, 1991. Memories.

Back to 2008.

I'm amazed to think what we've come to in this day and age is 34 bowl games. THIRTY-FOUR BOWLS?!?!? Do we really need that many?

Since when did bowl games become what everything else in society has become -- rewarding mediocrity. In the 1970s when I was in elementary school and we had a Field Day competition, the person that finished 4th got NOTHING. Top three get ribbons, the best were rewarded, the losers were not. That's how a compeititon works, you reward the people that succeed.

Now everybody wins. It's ok that little Curly Sue finished 43th out of 50 kids in her 3rd grade race. She gets a ribbon. Everybody wins! We wouldn't want you to go home and think you failed. You won! It's a great way to set up kids for life because that's how the real world works (being sarcastic). Just do an average job and get rewarded.

Now when Curly Sue goes to apply for a job at the local Panda Express in the mall when she's 16 and doesn't get it. Don't you think she's going to be a little confused because her whole life she's been never lost?

This is the same idiotic treatment we are getting from the so-called sport that I love -- college football.

Since when did we start rewarding teams for finishing .500? Are the NCAA and bowl officials worried that the players are going to feel bad when they go 6-6, while their friends went 8-3 are are playing in the Libery Bowl? It's called life college football, but I'm not surprised from a sport that continues to determine which two teams play for the championship by human voting and a computer ranking.

Way too many games. We could easily cut it down to 24. I know that won't make everybody happy, but we don't need Conference-USA getting six bids or the ACC getting nine, etc., etc. Let's make it so getting to a bowl is a tremendous accomplishment.

As for the actual games, look at some of the things that jumped out a me:

Dec. 31 and Jan. 1 -- Five games on each day, the way college football should be. Chick-fil-A and Sun povide the best possible matchups on Dec. 31, while Jan. 1 is loaded with the best full day of games.

Hawaii Bowl, Dec. 24 -- The past couple of seasons the Hawaii Bowl has taken a team from the WAC against a Conference-USA team. This year its WAC vs. Pac-10. Much better matchup for the West Coast and will probably give fans a high-scoring affair. The only problem is, hopefully it wont last until 1 a.m. when Santa is supposed to come.

The Congressional Bowl -- ACC No. 9? Are you serious? When's the last time the ACC had nine bowl-eligible teams? This game has Navy vs. Maryland written all over it. This might be the easiest bowl to predict. Now what if the ACC doesn't have enough teams, then we might be looking at Sun Belt No. 2

Notre Dame -- Love them or hate them, they are the darlings of bowl selection and this year it will be the Gator Bowl. The Gator Bowl can take a Big 12 or Big East team and since they had Texas Tech last year, that means they get first choice of Notre Dame is the Irish are bowl-eligible. So expect the Irish to be in Jacksonville on Jan. 1.

Jan. 2 -- Three games on Jan. 2 this year? Sweet. Cotton at 2 p.m., Liberty at 5 p.m. and Sugar at 8 p.m. Tell the wife and loved ones you are busy that Friday. (Wow, Jan. 1 games, Jan. 2 games, then the weekend with NFL playoff games!)

And, the national title is in Miami. Will we see Ohio State vs. SEC, Part 3? Stay tuned...

Now I know we are jumping the gun and anything can happen (just look at this past season), but for fun, I took all the early Top 25 polls from all the major sports websites and came up with a compiled list. Here is the Top 15:

Orange: Clemson vs. BYU? Big Ten No. 2? With the last selection of the BCS eligible teams, the Orange Bowl is going to get stuck with whoever is left. A second Big Ten team -- Wisconsin or Illinois or the non-BCS party crasher. BYU will have the best chance to earn this slot. Now if Arizona State can work its way up the rankings, they could land here too, but they would more likely go to the Fiesta Bowl, allowing the Orange to get West Virginia.

Sugar: Florida vs. Virginia Tech: The Sugar will almost certainly take the second-best SEC team and match them up with an ACC team or the Big East champion (West Virginia)

Fiesta: Missouri vs. West Virginia: If the Big 12 champion is in the title game, the Fiesta Bowl will probably replace them with another Big 12 team. It also gets first choice in the rest of the pecking order after the replacement teams. Looking at the above compiled rankings, West Virginia is the obvious choice. Now if Arizona State/Oregon or another Big Ten team is ranked high, they will grab them, allowing West Virginia to go Orange or Sugar.